Did you know that buying the fastest, highest performance Ethernet cables on the market
is probably a bad idea? The cables I'm talking about are Category 8, or just Cat 8 for short.
It's quite easy to buy them online, but you'll typically pay a premium for it, compared to
more common Cat 5e and Cat 6 cables.
But that's fine, because according to Amazon listings, these cables are great for gaming
and streaming, right?
Yeah, you really should take pause before dropping extra money on Cat 8 just because
it's the newest, fastest thing out there. The most obvious reason is simply because there isn't really a point to Cat 8 for most
home users. Cat 8 tops out at 40 gigabits per second, which is seriously impressive.
All other things being equal, that's fast enough to download a 50 Gigabyte Steam game
in just 10 seconds. But the fastest home internet connection in the US right now is only 8 gigabits, and
average speeds are far lower than that. You'll also need equipment at home that can actually take advantage of those higher speeds.
Many computers still only come with 1 gigabit Ethernet ports, and although you can certainly
buy Ethernet adapters that support higher speeds, you'll pay more and more money the
higher up the ladder you go. A 40 gigabit network card can set you back many hundreds of dollars, and models that
are available now don't even support Cat 8 Ethernet cables.
They instead use a different connector called QSFP+, which is typically used with fiber
optic or twin axial cables. There are adapters you can use, but none of them seem to support the full 40 gig speed
over a standard Ethernet connection. And unless you're often moving huge amounts of data around your internal home network,
you're never even going to get close to using all that bandwidth.
However, there's another really important reason you might not want to splurge on Cat
8. Category 8 cables are typically thicker and stiffer than other Ethernet cables you're
probably used to. Although this sounds like it could be a good thing in terms of durability, it actually
makes the cables harder to bend, which means they're more difficult to route around objects.
But even if you're doing a short, straight cable run, there have been a good number of
anecdotal reports of Cat 8 cables not working very well with home networking equipment,
with users complaining of poor performance even though the cables are theoretically compatible
with mainstream routers, PCs, and consoles.
Because the cables themselves are larger, more rigid, and require shielding.
Terminating them, that is correctly attaching a connector so you can actually plug them
into something, is significantly more difficult than with a more run-of-the-mill Ethernet
cable. This is obviously an issue for people buying bulk cable and terminating the cables themselves,
but it's also an issue for folks who are just buying plug-and-play Cat 8 cables online.
A good number of quote, Cat 8 cables being marketed towards consumers for relatively
low prices are simply not being built to the actual Category 8 specification, meaning that
problems people are reporting from trying to use them at home are likely the result
of fake Cat 8 cables. Whether it's because they just aren't being constructed well due to either bad termination
or some other manufacturing issue, or because they're straight up mislabeled on purpose
as part of a scam. So what kind of cable should you be buying?
Depending on how fast you need your connection to be, and how long a cable run you need,
you should be buying either Cat 5e 6 or 6a.
Just have a look at this chart for details. We all love a good chart.
And I love a good viewer who watches all the way to the end of the video.
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I'm a little flustered now.